Hi! I am new here and by no means a baker and I need help. Lol. My daughter is wanting this Alice in Wonderland cake and party for the second year in a row. We told her no last year and obliged this year. After getting outrageous quotes and some bakers who didn't even want to attempt it, I am trying to learn how to do it myself. I currently have fondant in the fridge and cakes in the freezer and will be making my third attempt at this. Can someone please tell me if it would be easier for me to cut out the slanted tiers to make them sit on a flat surface or if I can just use dowels and secure actual slanted tiers. I thought because the tiers are short and due to the slanted hat on the wedge which are going to require lots of dowels that perhaps the slanted tiers would be simpler for me. Advice? Suggestions? Any help would be great! Thanks!
http://mudpiecakes.deviantart.com/

I should probably add that I'm not doing the teapot on top or any of the little decorations. I ordered the Alice characters and plan to only do the tablecloth, the heart layer and the hat with the occasional daisies and then add the characters.

I think its so sweet that you want to do this for your daughter! That said, There are many skills to learn when baking, torting, filling, icing, stacking, structuring, covering, & decorating a cake. I won't even begin to scratch the surface of these here. You are certainly challenging yourself as a beginner. Not to say that it's impossible, just daunting.

To get you started, here are some good tutorials for topsy turvy cake construction:

Http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/71115-demo-topsy-turvy-cake/

http://cakecentral.com/tutorial/how-to-make-a-topsy-turvy-whimsical-cake

Craftsy.com is also offering an online course on topsy turvy cakes. You can preview the course here:

http://www.craftsy.com/class/Topsy-Turvy-Cake-Construction/73


Good luck! Hope this helps!

Once you finish the cake, you'll understand why the quotes were outrageous YouTube also has some great tutorials on topsy turvy cakes along with all the basics of setting them up and covering with fondant!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracey2528

Once you finish the cake, you'll understand why the quotes were outrageous

I totally agree with Tracey2528. Although your heart is in the right place, you may find it just a tad past "daunting" and more toward "impossible". When experienced, custom cake decorators tell you, "I'm not able to do that", there's a reason. You may wish to arrive at a significant compromise for your daughter's birthday cake.

I live in a huge metropolitan area with many fabulous, custom bakers who actually could create that cake, exactly as shown......for a price. In my area a cake like that would probably cost about $1000 to $1200 or more.

As previously stated, it's not actually impossible and you may pull it off, but be prepared for a significant learning curve.

I would suggest doing each of the tiers with a flat base (ie fitting into a flat cut-in in the top of the tier below it) and using dowels to support each tier, as I would any other topsy turvy.

I applaud your desire to make a special cake for your little girl! Good luck with it

Here is a tutorial on the topsy turvy cake method that might help you:
http://www.wickedgoodies.net/2012/08/how-to-make-a-topsy-turvy-cake/

I would suggest you order Sharon Zambito's DVD "Totally Topsy Turvy", you can buy it online from Global Sugar Art. It will give you a lot of the basics in terms of torting, filling, doweling and the construction. If you dont have enough time to order it, try watching some you tube videos.

I too would have said how hard a topsy turvy cake is especially when you are not experienced with doing those kinds of cakes. I do them all the time now and have no problems with them but the first time I did one I had all kinds of problems and hated doing it. I am curious how the cake came out, I am assuming it has already been made since the OP was from July.

I don't know how large of a party you are doing. First figure that out.
For a first try, you may want to have the bottom two tiers be real cake. You can make the hat out of styrofoam which really makes the job soooo much easier.

Plan ahead. You may not need real cake for the top hat